I know how much you guys like sludge pics so...

[joegreen]

Here is what it looks/looked like under the valve cover on my 78 chevy k20 with a 350 sbc. I know nothing about the maintenance history of the vehicle but im sure it was not good. It was mostly a yard plow truck I think. I bought it with dirty oil and a trans where the fluid was not registering on the dipstick and all but one leaf spring broken on the passenger side rear axle. I have put at least 3000 miles on the truck since i bought it and all seems well. The pics are of a rocker before and after cleaning and under the valve cover before cleaning and while cleaning. I took the pics with my phone so they are not the best but you get the idea. The other side looks the same.

 

[zeng]

Among the worst I've ever seen .....

might be good to refresh all other fluids on it ....
then it'll be good to go.

 

[Rob_Roy]

I would give it a few short oil changes, but other than that just run it. A high mileage oil would probably be a good choice.

 

[Kestas]

Worst you've seen? My 350 (71 Cutlass) looked exactly the same before I rebuilt it. It may be normal.

 

[Kira]

To zeng and everyone else: Do you just change fluids and "good to go"? Or would you manually pick as much of the crud away as you could? Kira ps I'd do some manual picking.

 

[zeng]

Picking up sludge manually would be another Bonus , on top of replacing all other fluids like axle oils etc.

 

[Bottom_Feeder]

It's a nearly 40 year old truck born during the smog era. That looks perfectly normal for what it is.

If it runs fine, put it back together, use some decent oil and forget about it.

 

[Lapham3]

A 'yard truck' with plowing sounds like really severe duty, but a sbc is a good, stout and forgiving engine. If you're using it now as a more typical driver, I'd just change oil more often using a good 'long can' filter-good luck.

 

[cat843]

How have you been cleaning it? Auto-Rx?

 

[spasm3]

I've seen worse, like hand fulls of sludge on the head and valve cover. Cast iron that takes a while to get hot, 70's oils, lower temp thermostats!

There is probably more like that in the intake valley.

I'd just change oil often and if able run and oversize filter!

How did you clean it?

 

[meborder]

Originally Posted By: Kestas
Worst you've seen? My 350 (71 Cutlass) looked exactly the same before I rebuilt it. It may be normal.


It's not normal.

This is my yard truck and plow truck. It was severely neglected in every way, but still remained clean on the inside.

Judging a truck by its (valve) cover

Someone just didn't care enough to ever change the oil, on the one in this thread.

 

[Chris142]

The 624 heads are from a targetmaster engine. Is the engine painted black?

 

[andyd]

That would be a clean engine compared to some of the heads I cleaned with a putty knife, The final step was to open the oil galleries with a straightened out coat hanger pushed into the pan . The old blue flame 6 and the early Y block Fords were real sludge monsters

 

[CT8]

Nothing to worry about. move on.

 

[BigD1]

Originally Posted By: meborder
It's not normal. Someone just didn't care enough to ever change the oil, on the one in this thread.


Yes exactly.

I had a 71 Pontiac Catalina that I bought from my Dad, and around about 150,000 miles one of the lifters went bad. The oil and filter was always changed around the 3,000 mile mark with Havoline 10w-40 after I got it. When I disassembled the engine, it was as clean as what I am seeing now with people using synthetics. It had minimal varnish.

 

[JC1]

Joegreen,

Thanks for the pics. As you mention you'd already cleaned up the sludge manually. I would just run your favorite HM oil and maybe have a look under the valve cover next summer to see if it's any cleaner under the valve covers.

 

[BrocLuno]

It get cold enough there to make for some condensation most of the fall/winter. I'd put a 190* thermostat in it and switch t HDEO like Delvac 1300. The extra detergency will clean critical parts slowly over time. It's cheap enough that you can change it at 3K with over-sized filter and it will keep it alive for another 100K.

Not worth doing any mechanical work on unless it needs it. I would not disturb the sludge becasue you don't want it going down into teh sump and clogging the oil pump pick-up screen any more than it is ...

 

[meborder]

Originally Posted By: Chris142
The 624 heads are from a targetmaster engine. Is the engine painted black?


Hard to tell, everything is caked in goo from years of leaking valve cover gaskets.

The valve covers looked like they might have been orange ... Really hard to tell

The date stamp on the head looks like a 77.

That's about all I know.

 

[PReal]

My 71 blazer looks similar. I'm just changing the filter a lot becuase it's picking up a ton of sludge.

 

[joegreen]

Little maintainence background since I bought it a few years ago. Transfer case fluid changed twice. Front and rear diff fluid changed. Two new used leaf spring packs on each side of rear axle. Converted 14 bolt to disk brakes. New brake lines all around. New rubber hoses for brakes all around. Rebuilt the front calipers. Replaces all bearings and seals in front axle with all Timken stuff. Converted from carb to tbi with a custom chip. I have the chip burner and am still tuning it. New flex plate. Large trans cooler. Trans temp gauge. New oil pan gasket. Cleaned oil pump pickup. New rollmaster double roller timing chain. New radiator. New intake manifold gaskets. Cleaned out the sludged lifter valley while it was apart. Changed trans fluid and filter. Changed brake fluid. I'm sure their is some other stuff but that's the basics.